MovingTimes

The Corporate Responsibility Index (CRI) is a strategic management tool run by St James Ethics Centre to enhance the capacity of businesses to develop, measure and communicate best practice in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
The CRI measures responsible business practice through evaluating
four main areas:

• The corporate responsibility strategy of the business
• How this strategy is implemented across the business
• The management of corporate responsibility within the business
• The performance in a range of social and environmental impact areas
  
  

Colliers International is the first property services group in Australia to be listed on the Index. Managing Director of Office Leasing, Simon Hunt says the process allowed the company to not only benchmark their existing practices and confirm what they were doing well, but most importantly it created structure for the company to accelerate their future efforts. “We found that our current business plan and strategic vision for growth were very closely aligned to the principles of the Index. The process showed we were already doing a lot of things well. However, the initial focus for us was to bring all of our initiatives together and participate in a framework that will allow us to learn and grow,” says Mr Hunt.

“The best way to improve in any situation is to have a formal, objective assessment of your current performance. The framework of the Corporate Responsibility Index means is that we not only know where we stand now, but we are in a unique position to learn from other companies’ experiences,” he says.

In reviewing the company’s performance to date, Mr Hunt said the company’s results in the Workplace section of the report were most encouraging.

“A lot of property companies don’t pay enough attention to the human side of the business, however this has been a big focus for us over a number of years. While our client relationships are a critical asset, our success is totally dependent on the calibre of our people.”

Mr Hunt says Colliers International has invested heavily in the workplace including the introduction of new open plan highly sustainable office fit outs, the enhancement of their rewards and loyalty programmes, the establishment of a dedicated recruitment team and the introduction of more flexible working arrangements for work/life balance.

Mr Hunt says he is particularly proud of the company’s virtual training learning and development institution: 'Colliers University'.
“Real Estate is traditionally very sales orientated, however we saw the opportunity to move to a service orientated approach with a knowledge-based culture,” says Mr Hunt.

“Colliers University was set up to help foster that culture of knowledge and at the same time help develop individual career paths.”

Mr Hunt says one of the most popular and successful features of Colliers University are the global training camps, where individuals from the Australian business are invited to participate in training alongside colleagues from across the country and the world. “The international nature of our company is a big attraction to our people. We think it’s important to give them an opportunity to make the most of our global ties and leverage the learning and development experience,” says Mr Hunt.

While Colliers University provides great benefits to individual career development and professional improvement, there are also hundreds of examples of how the virtual training institution has delivered benefits to the business.

“One of the focuses of our growth as a company is around specialisation. We used Colliers University to help our people understand the benefits of specialisation and as a result we have seen the emergence of dedicated specialists in areas such as Healthcare & Retirement Living and Business Parks,” says Mr Hunt.

Mr Hunt says Colliers University is a best practice case for learning and development within the Australian real estate industry, proven by the fact that the company has been named Commercial Agency of the year two years running. Moving forward, the focus for Colliers University will be on leveraging the online environment to increase customisation and flexibility of the programme and maximise the opportunities to share best practice ideas globally.

“At Colliers International we believe that if you want to be a leader, you have to be an innovator,” says Mr Hunt. “We must keep moving and innovating to ensure we are offering our people the best opportunities in the best possible environment. As we keep telling our people, you can always learn more and build your knowledge so we are very keen to use our listing on the CRI to learn what other companies are doing.”